Album page stabilization system



sept 30, 1969 R. H. ROBERTS 3,469,333

ALBUM PAGE STABILIZATION SYSTEM Filed Nov. 30. 1966 y INVENTOR. ,mwwmm -ROBERT H. ROBERTS iii 3| ATTORNEY United States Patent Office Patented Sept. 30, 1969 3,469,333 ALBUM PAGE STABILIZATION SYSTEM Robert Herman Roberts, 69-22 185th St., Flushing, N.Y. 11365 Continuation-impart of application Ser. No. 540,956,

Apr. 7, 1966, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 384,919, July 24, 1964. This application Nov. 30, 1966, Ser. No. 611,193

Int. Cl. B42f 5 00, 11/00; G09f 11/063 U.S. Cl. 40-104.17 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Album leaves are mounted on the back of an album by means of a wire attached to an edge of each leaf and inserted in slotted elements secured to the opposite ends of the back of the album. Right angular cut-outs are provided in corners of each leaf adjacent the ends of the mounting wire, with one side of each right angular cutout tangentially contacting the top of each slotted element to stabilize the album leaf.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION The present application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 540,956 liled Apr. 7, 1966, now abandoned which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 384,919 filed July 24, 1964, now abandoned.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of invention The present invention relates to the stabilization of album pages and the field of the invention falls in Class 129, Sub-class 1; Class 40, Sub-class 102; and Class 129, Sub-classes and 38.

SUMMARY AND GENERAL STATEMENT OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to stabilized album pages in which there are a series of leaves having folded cloth hinges with flexible rods glued in position, which are bendable and t into slots and sheet metal or solid metal or plastic mounting members. The right angular cut-outs at the hinge corners serve to stabilize the pages, together with the flexibility of the folded cloth hinge section.

It is among the objects of the present invention to provide a simple, readily applied inexpensive photographic mounting album which may be utilized for mounting in a back and which will receive any desired numbers of photographs preferably each mounted in a transparent envelope.

A further object is to provide a photographic mounting system in which a plurality of photographs may be readily mounted or removed from a mounting album by simple manipulations without complex constructions and without difficulty by untrained personnel.

Still further objects and advantages will appear in the more detailed description set forth below, it being under stood, however, that this more detailed description is given by way of illustration and explanation only and not by way of limitation, since various changes therein may be made by those skilled in the art Without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.

In accomplishing the above objects it has been found most satisfactory according to one embodiment of the present invention to prepare a photographic mounting album in which .the top and bottom of the center hinge structure will have a slotted holder which may cooperate with and receive a plurality of plastic or metal flexible or resilient rods acting as pivot mounts carrying leaves within which photographs may be conveniently positioned.

These mounts may consist of slotted pieces of bent sheet metal or die cast elements which have flanges which may be attached to the hinge structure.

Generally the slotted mounting element has a slot which extends transversely above the hinge structure and has a bottom ange to be riveted, glued or otherwise permanently mounted to the hinge structure of the album. The sheets, themselves, consist of transparent envelopes having end bindings which are provided with elongated receptacles for receiving resilient pivot rods which are desirably of cylindrical form and of circular cross-section but which may be of other cross-section.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS With the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention consists of the novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts as hereinafter more specifically described, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein is shown an embodiment of the invention, but it is to be understood that changes, variations and modifications can be resorted to which fall within the scope of the claim hereunto appended.

In the drawings wherein like reference characters denote corresponding parts throughout the several views:

FIG. l is a top perspective view of one form of carrier according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a transverse sectional view upon the line 2-2 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a transverse sectional view upon the line 3-3 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a transverse sectional view similar to FIG. 2 showing how the separate page of sheet elements are inserted.

FIG. 5 is a transverse sectional view upon the line 5--5 of FIG. 4, showing the edge of the sheet with the flexible rod in position.

FIG. 6 is a top perspective view of the slotted end element when made of sheet metal.

FIG. 7 is a top perspective view showing the same device when made of a die casting.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to FIGS. 1 to 6 there is shown a binder or looseleaf book A having stiff covers B and C and back D, with a rectangular section E mounted thereon and hinged at its side edges to the covers B and C.

Between the covers B and C are located the stiff album pages F, each of which may include a sheet or sheets of transparent plastic material, such as cellulose acetate vinyl resin or polyethylene. The sheets are relatively stiff and may be of multi-ply material, including cardboard and framing material as well as the transparent plastic material, and they are engaged at their portions adjacent the hinge on opposite sides by the ilexible Woven cloth edging, which is folded. The section line 3-3 is beyond the element E and therefore it is not shown in FIG. 3.

In the bottom of the fold is glued a flexible, thin hinge rod, the length of which is equal to the height of the stiff album page F and which will extend to the edges of the right angular cut-outs and be positioned directly above the rigid elongated rectangular plate.

The rod H should be the same length as the width of the page F and it is found in such connection with the stabilization that the page will turn readily and will not tend to fall out of section and will not tend to flop idly when the assembly is made. As shown in FIG. 2, the ends of the rod H will extend substantially to the other side of the mounting members K but will terminate short of contact with the outer wall of said mounting members.

These hinge rods H are bendable and fit loosely into the slot J in the mounting members K or L.

Although the hinge rods are ilexibly and loosely held in the slotted member K, they will not appear so to one opening the book and inspecting the pages as indicated in FIG. l, since they will be stabilized by the tangential contact as indicated at T, which occurs in the flexible portion G of woven fabric just above the rod enclosure sleeve S. The tangential contact T at each corner will cause the leaves to lie fiat without looseness or undue movement when the pictures are being inserted, inspected or renewed from the multi-ply page elements F.

Desirably the distance indicated at Q in FIG. 2 gives an area of flexibility adjacent the rod H and inside the edge P of the multi-ply page F, so that there will be a substantial area of exible stiff page material in tangential contact T at each end of the page to completely stabilize the page.

The stiff frames or multi-ply album pages F are designed to receive wedding pictures or other display pictures which will be securely retained in position between suitable frames or enclosures.

The folded fabric G of the hinge side of the stiff page F is glued at 20 or otherwise attached to the cloth edging or sides 21 of the hinge structure which is sealed together at 22.

An opening is left at 23 in which is tightly inserted the rod H, the ends 24 of which will project beyond the cloth hinge structure G.

The rod 24 which desirably is of stainless steel but which may be of plastic or brass or even stilfened cord is inserted at its ends into the slots J of the end holders K. This is done by bowing the rods as indicated in FIG. 4 and inserting the rods into the slots J.

As shown in FIG. 3 there are a series of rod ends 24 seven being indicated but it is obvious there may be a larger number of the leaves F.

The holder K as shown in FIG. 6 is of sheet metal and of semi-cylindrical cross-section. The inside portion 30 receives slot I and there is an extending portion or flat portion 31 which may be mounted on the plate E by rivets, glue or in other manners. The mounting plate portion 31 may also be covered with fabric if desired.

The ends 24 desirably project for stability purpose beyond the point of tangent contact indicated at T to adjacent the outside walls K of the member.

In the alternative form of mounting element as shown in FIG. 7 there is a solid plastic block or metal die casting L slotted at M to receive the ends 24. The extension 33 enables mounting onto the back plate by rivets, screws or by glue.

The essential feature is that any number of leaves may be inserted and this may be done without any complicated mounting arrangements, and when the leaves are folded outwardly for inspection, as shown in FIG. 1, they will lie fiat and not be subject to canting, even though they are loose in the slots J and M Without canting.

The slot M may be milled in or otherwise formed in the block of FIG. 7. Desirably, the flexible hinge portion G is of a thin Woven fabric .010 to .025 inch, whereas the stii page F has a thickness of from .075 to .200 inch.

This application is particularly directed to the stabilized construction resulting from the cut-out corners 100, 101, 102, as best shown in FIG. 2, which permits the binding edge of the leaf to tangentially be guided and stabilized by the rounded semi-cylindrical top portion of the sheet metal slotted member k with the edge of the page F extending out to the side ends of the exible wires H or 24.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, what is claimed is:

1. In an album having a back with elongated side edges and heavy stiff cover leaves, hingedly mounted on said side edges, and said album having multi-ply stiif removable folded leaves or pages for carrying and displaying photographs, each page having an axis closely adjacent said back, and said pages consisting of folded sheets of multiply stiff material with the sealed edges outermost and the upper and lower edges being separable for insertion of a picture to be displayed; and an outside folded double layer flexible woven cloth binding having an end tubular enclosure and right angular corner cut-outs adjacent said back, said cut-outs having cut-out edges parallel to the axis and transverse edges transverse to said axis and said flexible binding being attached to and connecting to and joining the inside edges of the stiff pages adjacent to the pivot axis, thin flexible wire rods extending along and through and glued within the tubular enclosure and parallel to and substantially spaced from inside edges of the stiff pages but slightly separated therefrom and tightly engaged by said binding and transversely slotted end mounting rigid metal members having outside tangential contact portions and inwardly facing transverse slots at the ends of the back of said album, and integral anges projecting inwardly from said mounting members and permanently mounted on the ends of the rigid metal pivot support, said rods being as wide as the leaves and projecting beyond the tangential contact portions and beyond the upper and lower edges of the transverse cut-out edges and fitting into the slots of said mounting members, and said parallel cut-out edges being tangent to and contacting and riding on the tops of the outside portions of the mounting members and said transverse cut-out edges being substantially inside of said mounting members and the edges of the sides of the folded pages terminating inside of the outside edges of the sheet metal members and beyond said tangent contact of the parallel edges and the outside portions of the mounting members, said mounting members being of folded sheet metal and having an integrally inwardly projecting ange on the inside face of the mounting members attached to said back and the slot being on the inside face of the mounting members and the ends of the flexible wire rod of each folded page projecting substantially across the entire width of the mounting members to adjacent the outside face of the mounting members and said mounting members being of cylindrical cross-section.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,279,673 9/1918 Dobersch 129-1 2,340,222 1/ 1944 Johnson 40-102 FOREIGN PATENTS Ad. 78,895 12/ 1960 France. 1,125,056 7/1956 France.

461,902 2/ 1937 Great Britain. 172,841 9/1960 Sweden. 605,714 6/1960 Italy.

JEROME SCHNALL, Primary Examiner U.S. C1. X.R. 

